Dead Deplorables & Class Warfare, by Rod Dreher.

The graph on the left is white people without college degrees. The other one is white people with college degrees. …

From the paper by Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton:

Some of the most convincing discussions of what has happened to working class whites emphasize a longterm process of decline, or of cumulative deprivation, rooted in the steady deterioration in job opportunities for people with low education …

This process, which began for those leaving high school and entering the labor force after the early 1970s — the peak of working class wages, and the beginning of the end of the “blue collar aristocracy” — worsened over time …

Marriage was no longer the only way to form intimate partnerships, or to rear children. …

People moved away from the security of legacy religions or the churches of their parents and grandparents, towards churches that emphasized seeking an identity, or replaced membership with the search for connections …

These changes left people with less structure when they came to choose their careers, their religion, and the nature of their family lives. When such choices succeed, they are liberating; when they fail, the individual can only hold him or herself responsible. In the worst cases of failure, this is a Durkheim-like recipe for suicide.

hat-tip Stephen Neil